Lycera CEO departs less than year after joining University of Michigan spinoff

Bill Sibold, who was hired as CEO in January, is no longer leading the company, which moved its official headquarters from Michigan to Massachusetts in part because Sibold lived there.

“Bill is a senior and experienced biotech executive with an excellent track record at Biogen, but both he and the board felt that the fit was not optimal with a heavily science based company like Lycera,” Lycera chairman Jeff Leiden told Xconomy in an e-mail.

Lycera conducts its scientific research at the Michigan Life Science Innovation Center, a business incubator in Plymouth Township. But the company moved its corporate headquarters to Massachusetts, saying the East Coast provided better access to management talent and other resources. Xconomy reported that Lycera would maintain its Massachusetts office.

Lycera last year lined up access to $36 million in venture capital, financing that will fund its development of immune disease drug therapies.